t:^-^^  m 


St 

i 


Roosevelt:  "Straightout  Americanism"  307 

and  if  the  trophies  and  proofs  of  its  success  consisted  merely  in 
the  symbols  of  successful  money-getting.  The  money  must  be 
there  as  a  basis,  but  by  no  means  as  broad  a  basis  as  most  of  the 
very  successful  men  among  us  have  made  it  in  their  lives.  It  must 
be  there  as  a  basis,  as  a  foundation,  but  it  is  only  the  foundation, 
and  the  foundation  is  worthless  unless  upon  it  you  build  the 
superstructure  of  the  higher  life,  the  life  with  ideals  of  beauty,  of 
nobility,  of  achievement  for  good  for  the  sake  of  doing  what  is 
good,  the  life  of  service  and  of  sacrifice  in  any  one  of  a  hundred 
lines,  all  directed  toward  the  welfare  of  our  common  country. 


German  philosophy  of  war 
by 

miliara  Baird  E3.kin 


Indiana  University  Alumni  Quarterly 
July,  1918 


GERMAN  PHILOSOPHY  OF  WAR^ 

By  William  Baird  Elkin 
Professor  of  Philosophy  in  Indiana  University 

My  subject  falls  under  three  heads:  (1)  German  philosophy 
of  war;  (2)  German  ethics  of  war;  and  (3)  a  critical  examination 
of  the  fundamental  principles  involved. 


German  philosophy  of  war,  one  might  almost  say  German  civil- 
ization, is  based  essentially  on  four  ideas.  These  are  in  four  books, 
two  ancient,  and  two  comparatively  modern.  The  first  I  would 
mention  is  Plato's  Republic.  In  Plato's  philosophy  of  the  state, 
the  state  begins  small,  and  the  people  are  poor.  It  increases  in 
wealth  and  in  population.  Then  it  expands.  Expansion  leads  to 
war.  For  war  an  army  is  needed.  If  the  army  is  to  be  successful, 
it  must  be  well  trained.  Hence,  the  state  is  organized  for  the  sake 
of  the  army;  and  the  army  is  organized  for  the  sake  of  the  ruling 
class.  This  is  an  aristocracy.  It  is  government  by  the  few.  But 
the  few  are  the  intelligent,  the  wealthy,  and  the  efficient.  Conse- 
quently, they  are  the  best.  And  government  by  the  best  is  thought 
to  be  the  best  government. 

The  great  representatives,  in  Germany,  of  this  idea  were  Bis- 
marck and  Treitschke.  Treitschke  held  that  England  was  a  decadent 
nation.  She  began  to  decline  about  1832,  with  the  enactment  of  the 
first  reform  bill,  when  Great  Britain  began  to  become  truly  demo- 
cratic. She  became  more  democratic,  and  therefore  more  degenerate. 
Hence  it  was  only  a  question  of  time  when  the  British  Empire 
would  break  up,  and  most  of  the  fragments  would  pass  to  the 
country  in  best  condition  to  acquire  them.  That  country  would  be 
Germany,  with  her  superior  form  of  government.  The  process  of 
British  disintegration  and  German  expansion  might  be  facilitated 
by  war.  "We  have  already  made  our  reckoning  with  Austria," 
said  Treitschke,  "with  France,  and  with  Russia ;  our  last  reckoning, 
that  with  England,  will  probably  be  the  most  tedious  and  the  most 
difficult."^ 

The  second  idea  is  in  the  Old  Testament,  the  Hebrew  conception 
of  a  chosen  people,  whose  national  mission  was  to  take  possession 

1  This  article  was  given  as  a  lecture  in  The  Causes  of  the  Great  War  course, 
in  the  University  this  year. 

'  Treitschke :     His  Life  and  Works,  p.  208. 


.^*Ex<i/<?/7^^ 


Elkin:  German  Philosophy  of  War  309 

of  the  Promised  Land,  and  then  to  increase  and  multiply  until  they 
should  become  like  the  stars  of  heaven,  or  the  sand  on  the  seashore 
in  multitude. 

The  great  representative  of  this  idea  is  the  Kaiser,  as  when  he 
said,  "Remember  that  the  German  people  are  the  chosen  of  God."^ 
"It  is,  as  it  is  written  in  the  Bible,  my  duty  to  increase  this  heritage, 
for  which  one  day  I  shall  be  called  upon  to  give  an  account."*  On 
January  18,  1896,  the  writer  joined  in  the  celebration  of  the  twenty- 
fifth  anniversary  of  the  founding  of  the  German  Empire.  That 
evening  the  Emperor  in  his  famous  Palace  speech  declared:  "The 
German  Empire  has  become  a  world-empire.  Thousands  of  our 
countrymen  live  abroad  in  the  most  distant  parts  of  the  world. 
.  .  .  It  is  your  duty,  gentlemen,  to  see  that  you  help  me  to 
incorporate  this  Greater  Germany  permanently  into  the  old  Father- 
land. .  .  .  You  will  loyally  and  devotedly  assist  me  to  discharge 
my  duty,  not  only  to  our  countrymen  at  home  but  to  those  thou- 
sands of  our  countrymen  who  dwell  afar,  so  that  when  they  need  my 
protection,  I  may  have  the  power  to  extend  it  to  them."^  And,  in 
a  confidential  memorandum,  issued  March,  1913,  he  said  that  their 
aim  was  "to  fortify  and  to  extend  German  power  throughout  the 
whole  world."® 

If  one  inquires  how  this  extension  of  power  is  to  be  eflfected, 
one  comes  to  the  third  idea.  It  is  in  Machiavelli's  Prince,  as  ex- 
pounded by  Frederick  the  Great.  "No  treaty,"  said  Treitschke, 
"and  no  alliance  could  ever  make  him  [Frederick]  renounce  the 
right  of  free  self-determination,"  consequently,  "all  his  life  through 
he  was  exposed  to  the  accusation  of  faithless  cunning."^  German 
power  is  to  be  extended  partly  by  alliances,  when  Germany  would 
have  the  better  of  the  alliance,  and  would  observe  the  alliance  only 
so  long  as  it  was  thought  to  be  advantageous ;  and  partly  by  war, 
brought  on  at  the  opportune  moment. 

The  chief  representatives  of  this  idea  are  Bernhardi  and  the 
General  Staff.  "Let  it  be  the  task  of  our  diplomacy,"  wrote  Bern- 
hardi, "so  to  shuffle  the  cards  that  we  may  be  attacked  by  France, 
for  then  there  would  be  reasonable  prospect  that  Russia  for  a  time 
would  remain  neutral.     .     .     . 

"But  we  must  not  hope  to  bring  about  this  attack  by  waiting 
passively.     .     .     . 

'Davenport:     History  of  the   Great   War,  p.    187. 
*  Prince :     Psychology  of  the  Kaiser,  p.  41. 
■>  Hammer:      William  the  Second,  p.   119. 
"Davenport:     History  of  the  Great  War,  p.  223. 
''History  of  Germany,  Vol.  I,  p.  61. 


389411 


310  Indiana  University  Alumni  Quarterly 

"We  must  initiate  an  active  policy  which,  without  attacking 
France,  will  so  prejudice  her  interests  or  those  of  England,  that 
both  these  states  would  feel  themselves  compelled  to  attack  us. 
Opportunities  for  such  procedure  are  offered  both  in  Africa  and 
in  Europe,  and  anyone  who  has  attentively  studied  prominent  polit- 
ical utterances  can  easily  satisfy  himself  on  that  point."^ 

The  fourth  idea  is  in  Comte's  positive  philosophy,  "the  law  of 
the  three  stages".  According  to  Comte,  civilization  passes  through 
three  stages:  the  theological,  the  metaphysical,  and  the  positive. 
The  first  stage  is  called  the  theological,  because  then  people  ex- 
plained natural  phenomena  by  means  of  personal  agents,  as  when 
they  thought  that  the  sun  was  carried  around  the  earth  in  the 
chariot  of  Apollo,  and  eclipses  of  the  sun  and  moon  were  caused 
by  gods  or  demons  eating  them  up.  After  a  time  civilization  ad- 
vanced to  the  second  stage.  Then  theology  was  relegated  to  a 
subordinate  position,  and  people  explained  things  by  means  of 
metaphysical  principles,  such  as  substances,  essences,  energies,  etc. 
Finally,  civilization  advanced  to  the  third  stage.  Then  there  is 
no  more  use  for  either  theology,  or  metaphysics,  since  people  ex- 
plain phenomena  in  terms  of  antecedent  and  consequent,  in  accord- 
ance with  natural  law.  In  the  third  stage,  science  usurps  the  place 
formerly  held  by  theology  and  metaphysics,  and  rules  alone  supreme. 

In  the  latter  half  of  the  last  century  the  Germans  almost  univer- 
sally adopted  Comte's  idea.  They  said  that  theology  and  meta- 
physics were  outgrown  and  outworn.  Science  alone  was  sufficient 
for  the  needs  of  modern  civilization.  And  they  applied  science  to 
agriculture,  to  industry,  to  commerce,  to  education,  to  war,  to  gov- 
ernment, and  to  everything  mechanical.  This  application  of 
utilitarian  scientific  principles  to  modem  life,  without  due  regard 
to  other  equally  important  factors  of  civilization — religious,  ethical, 
esthetic — is  the  peculiar  and  striking  characteristic  of  German 
"Kultur".  The  Germans  claim  to  be  much  farther  advanced  in 
this  respect  than  any  other  people  in  the  world.  Hence  they  have 
a  divine  mission  to  civilize,  to  lead,  and  to  rule  all  other  peoples. 
Of  course,  they  profess  to  act  for  the  good  of  mankind.  Thus  Ost- 
wald,  the  noted  chemist,  says :  "Germany,  thanks  to  her  genius 
for  organization  or  social  efficiency,  has  attained  a  stage  of  civiliza- 
tion far  higher  than  that  of  all  other  peoples.  .  .  .  Among  our 
enemies  the  Russians,  in  brief,  are  still  in  the  period  of  the  undis- 
ciplined tribe   [theological  stage,  perhaps]    while  the  French  and 

»  Germany  and  the  Next  War,  p.  290. 


Elkin:  German  Philosophy  of  War  311 

the  English  have  only  attained  the  degree  of  cultural  development 
which  we  ourselves  left  behind  fifty  years  ago  [metaphysical  stage, 
probably] . 

"Do  you  ask  me  what  it  is  that  Germany  wants?  Well,  Ger- 
many wants  to  organize  Europe,  for  up  to  now  Europe  has  never 
been  organized.  .  .  .  How  does  Germany  propose  to  realize 
this  project  of  social  efficiency?  In  the  west  of  Europe,  she  de- 
mands that  the  Germans  and  the  French  shall  have  an  equal  wel- 
come in  their  respective  countries.  ...  In  Eastern  Europe 
Germany  will  create  a  confederation  of  states,  a  sort  of  Baltic  con- 
federation, which  will  include  the  Scandinavian  countries,  Finland, 
and  the  Baltic  provinces.  Finally,  she  will  tear  Poland  from  Rus- 
sia, and  will  make  of  it  a  new  independent  state.  The  moment  has 
come,  I  believe,  for  remodeling  the  map  of  Europe."^ 

Summarizing  what  has  been  said:  The  Germans,  according  to 
their  own  view,  have  the  best  form  of  government ;  they  are  an  elect 
people  with  a  divine  mission,  which  they  are  carrying  out  in  a 
strictly  scientific  way,  in  accordance  with  natural  law,  and,  conse- 
quently, the  will  of  God. 

II 

We  come  now  to  a  discussion  of  the  German  ethics  of  war. 
Ethics  may  be  defined  as  the  science  of  right  and  wrong.  Here  two 
questions  arise:  (1)  What  is  right?  and  (2)  How  do  we  know 
it?  These  constitute  the  two  fundamental  problems  in  ethical 
theory:  the  highest  good,  and  conscience.  We  shall  consider  both 
in  succession. 

The  highest  good  for  man  means  that  which,  if  people  attained 
it,  would  make  for  them  a  perfect  life.  Hence  all  acts  which  tend 
to  realize  the  highest  good  are  right.  All  acts  which  prevent  or 
tend  to  prevent  the  realization  of  the  highest  good  are  wrong. 
And  all  other  acts  are  morally  indifferent.  So  that  acts  are  moral, 
immoral,  or  non-moral,  according  as  they  realize  the  highest  good, 
prevent  its  realization,  or  do  neither.^^ 

The  next  question  is,  What  is  the  highest  good?  Two  general 
answers  are  given.  Some  people  say  the  highest  good  is  happiness. 
Others  say,  not  happiness,  but  perfection,  or  some  form  of  develop- 
ment. If  we  say  the  highest  good  is  happiness,  then  another  ques- 
tion arises :  whose  happiness  ?  mine  ?  or  others  ?  the  happiness  of  the 

*  Outlook,  January  6,   1915,  p.   16. 

"  This  take.s  account  of  only  one  division  of  ethical  theory,  the  teleologrlcal ; 
but  that  is  sufficient  for  the  present  purpose. 


\ 


312  Indiana  University  Alumni  Quarterly 

individual?  or  the  happiness  of  all  people?  If  we  say  that  the 
happiness  of  the  individual  is  the  highest  good,  the  ethical  theory 
is  called  Egoistic  Hedonism.  If  we  say  the  happiness  of  man- 
kind, the  theory  is  called  Altruistic  Hedonism,  or  Utilitarianism.  If 
we  say  the  highest  good  is  perfection,  a  similar  question  arises  as 
before,  whose  perfection?  the  perfection  of  the  individual?  or  the 
perfection  of  all  people?  If  we  say  the  perfection  of  the  individual 
is  the  highest  good,  the  theory  is  that  of  self-realization.  If  we  say 
the  perfection  of  mankind,  the  theory  is  that  of  social  welfare, 
closely  akin  to  social  service. 

Our  next  inquiry  is.  What  is  the  German  highest  good?  For 
the  common  people  the  highest  good  is  the  Fatherland,  a  modifica- 
tion of  the  fourth  ideal.  But  the  common  people  are  not  Germany. 
The  common  people  exist  for  the  sake  of  the  Fatherland.  "In  the 
German  view,"  said  Miinsterberg,  "the  state  is  not  for  the  indi- 
viduals, but  the  individuals  for  the  state. ^^  And  the  Fatherland 
exists  for  the  sake  of  the  ruling  class.  The  ruling  class  of  Germany 
molds  and  makes  both  the  Fatherland  and  the  common  people.  The 
ruling  class  is  the  real  Germany,  And  the  highest  good  of  the 
ruling  class  is  self-realization. 

If  space  permitted,  it  might  be  interesting  to  trace  the  develop- 
ment of  the  German  highest  good  from  the  time  of  Luther,  through 
the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  then  through  the  Romantic 
movement  in  the  eighteenth  century,  and  the  Prussian  school  sys- 
tem in  the  nineteenth  century,  until  the  rise  of  Nietzscheism  in 
recent  times.  Nietzsche  did  not  make  the  theory,  he  found  it. 
And  it  is  his  distinctive  merit,  or  demerit,  that  he  took  up  this 
theory  of  the  highest  good  and  developed  it  to  its  ultimate  logical 
conclusion,  in  his  doctrine  of  the  superman. 

Nietzsche's  greatest  book  is  his  Zarathustra.  Of  it  he  said: 
"I  have  given  to  mankind  the  profoundest  book  it  possesses,  my 
Zarathustra."  This  profoundest  book  in  the  world,  according  to 
the  author,  proclaims  that  God  is  dead!  But  if  God  is  dead,  what 
are  men  to  do  ?  How  get  along  without  God  ?  All  that  is  necessary 
is  for  men  to  become  gods  themselves,  and  thus  take  God's  place; 
or  if  they  cannot  do  that,  then  they  ought  to  do  the  next  best 
thing,  viz.  become  supermen.  To  become  a  superman  means  to 
be,  to  do,  to  get,  and  to  hold,  all  raised  to  the  «th  power.  But 
everyone  cannot  become  a  superman.    Hence  there  are  two  classes 

"  The  War  and  America,  p.  135. 


Elkin:  German  Philosophy  of  War  313 

of  people:  supermen,  and  back-worldsmen ;  or,  briefly,  masters  and 
slaves. 

Accordingly,  there  are  two  systems  of  morality:  the  morality 
of  the  masters  and  the  morality  of  the  slaves.  But  as  it  is  better 
to  be  a  master  than  a  slave,  the  master  morality  is  the  good 
morality,  the  slave  morality  is  the  bad  morality.  The 
slave  morality  is  essentially  the  same  as  Christian  morality. 
It  is  fit  only  for  "shopkeepers,  Christians,  cows,  women, 
Englishmen,  and  other  democrats."  Nietzsche  thinks  it  is  impos- 
sible to  say  anything  too  severe  against  Christianity.  It  is  the 
greatest  evil  that  ever  appeared  in  the  world,  because  it  tends  to 
prevent  the  realization  of  the  highest  good,  and  the  development 
of  the  superman.  In  the  Antichrist  he  says :  "The  Christian  con- 
cept of  God — God  as  God  of  the  sick,  God  as  cobweb-spinner,  God 
as  spirit — is  one  of  the  most  corrupt  concepts  of  God  ever  arrived 
at  on  earth."i2 

"Every  expression  in  the  mouth  of  a  'first  Christian'  is  a  lie, 
every  action  he  does  is  an  instinctive  falsehood — all  his  values, 
all  his  aims  are  injurious,  but  he  whom  he  hates,  that  which  he 
hates,  has  value.  .  .  .  Have  I  yet  to  say  that  in  the  v/hole 
New  Testament,  only  a  single  figure  appears,  which  one  is  obliged 
to  honor — Pilate,  the  Roman  governor?  To  take  a  Jewish  aflfair 
seriously, — he  will  not  be  persuaded  to  do  so.  A  Jew  more  or 
less — what  does  that  matter  F"^^ 

Finally:  "With  this  I  am  at  the  conclusion  and  pronounce  my 
sentence.  I  condemn  Christianity.  I  bring  against  the  Christian 
church  the  most  terrible  of  all  accusations  that  ever  an  accuser  has 
taken  into  his  mouth.  It  is  to  me  the  greatest  of  all  imaginable 
corruptions.  .  .  .  The  Christian  church  has  left  nothing  un- 
touched with  its  depravity,  it  has  made  a  worthlessness  out  of  every 
value,  a  lie  out  of  every  truth,  a  baseness  of  soul  out  of  every 
straight-forwardness.  Let  a  man  still  dare  to  speak  to  me  of  its 
'humanitarian'  blessings!  .  .  .  The  'equality  of  souls  before 
God,'  this  falsehood,  .  .  .  this  explosive  material  of  a  concept 
which  has  finally  become  revolution, — is  Christian  dynamite.  .  .  . 
"This  eternal  accusation  of  Christianity  I  shall  write  on  all  walls, 
wherever  there  are  walls,  .  .  . — I  call  Christianity  the  one  great 
curse,  the  one  great  intrinsic  depravity,  the  one  great  in- 
stinct of  revenge  for  which  no  expedient  is  sufficiently  poisonous, 

»P.   258. 
^Ibid.,  p.  312. 


314  Indiana  University  Alunmi  Quarterly 

secret,  subterranean,  mean, — I  call  it  the  one  immortal  blemish  of 
mankind.    .    .  .    "** 

Contrasted  with  Christian  or  slave  morality  is  the  morality  of 
the  superman,  the  morality  of  the  masters.  Thus  Zarathustra  spake 
unto  the  people :  "I  teach  you  the  higher  man.  Man  is  something 
that  must  be  overcome.    What  have  ye  done  to  surmount  him  ? 

"All  beings  hitherto  created  something  greater  than  themselves; 
and  would  ye  be  the  ebb  of  this  great  flood,  and  rather  go  back 
to  the  beast  than  surmount  the  human? 

"What  is  the  ape  for  men?  A  laughing-stock  or  a  painful  dis- 
grace. The  same  shall  man  be  for  the  higher  man — a  laughing- 
stock or  a  painful  disgrace.  .  .  .  See,  I  teach  you  the  higher 
man."i5 

"Ye  have  heard  it  said  of  old,  blessed  are  the  meek,  for  they 
shall  inherit  the  earth ;  but  I  say  unto  you,  blessed  are  the  valiant, 
for  they  shall  make  the  earth  their  throne;  and  ye  have  heard 
men  say,  blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit;  but  I  say  to  you,  blessed 
are  the  mighty  and  free  in  spirit,  for  they  shall  enter  Valhalla. 
And  ye  have  heard  men  say,  blessed  are  the  peacemakers,  but  I 
say  unto  you,  blessed  are  they  who  make  war,  for  they  shall  be 
called  not  the  children  of  Jahve,  but  the  children  of  Odin,  which  is 
greater  than  Jahve." 

From  the  German  theory  of  the  highest  good  a  few  practical 
conclusions  follow : 

First,  justification  of  war.  Nietzsche  did  not  invent  this 
doctrine.  He  found  it  already  prominent  in  German  thought,  and 
emphasized  it. 

Frederick  the  Great:  "War  opens  the  most  fruitful  field  of 
all  virtues." 

Hegel:  "Just  as  the  movement  of  the  ocean  prevents  the  cor- 
ruption which  would  result  from  perpetual  calm,  so  by  war  people 
escape  the  corruption  which  would  be  occasioned  by  a  continuous 
peace." 

Moltke:  "Perpetual  peace  is  a  dream,  and  not  even  a  beauti- 
ful dream.    But  war  is  a  link  in  the  divine  system  of  the  universe." 

Treitschke:  "War  is  a  biological  necessity  of  the  first  im- 
portance." 

."Efforts  directed  toward  the  abolition  of  war  are  not  only 
foolish,  but  absolutely  immoral,  and  must  be  stigmatized  as  un- 
worthy of  the  human  race." 

1*  Antichrist,  pp.  349-351. 

"Cf.  Seth:     Man's  Place  in  the  Cosmos,  p.  280. 


Elkin:  German  Philosophy  of  War  315 

Nietzsche:  "Ye  shall  love  peace  as  a  means  to  new  wars,  and 
the  short  peace  better  than  the  long. 

"I  do  not  advise  you  to  work,  but  to  fight.  I  do  not  advise 
you  to  conclude  peace,  but  to  conquer.  Let  your  work  be  a  fight, 
your  peace  a  victory!     .     .     . 

'*Ye  say,  a  good  cause  will  hallow  even  war?  I  say  unto  you: 
a  good  war  halloweth  every  cause."^^ 

"Oh,  blessed  remote  time,  when  a  people  said  unto  itself :  *I  will 
be — master  over  peoples !' 

"For,  my  brethren,  what  is  best,  shall  rule;  what  is  best,  will 
rule!  And  where  the  teaching  soundeth  different,  the  best  is — 
lacking."i7 

A  second  conclusion  is  the  justification  of  Germany's  claim 
to  a  place  in  the  sun,  the  acquisition  of  more  colonies  and  the  exten- 
sion of  commerce.  In  1912  Delbriick,  Trictschke's  successor  in  the 
chair  of  history  in  Berlin  University,  dealt  with  this  subject  in  his 
own  periodical,  the  Preussische  Jahrbilcher.  He  thought  the  time 
had  come  to  remodel  the  map  of  Africa,  so  that  Germany  might 
have  a  colonial  empire  in  that  continent.  Not  that  Germany  had 
colonists  to  send  there.  Germany  is  not  an  emigrant  country,  but 
an  immigrant  country.  She  employed  annually  upwards  of  one 
million  foreign  workmen.  But  the  situation  was  this:  Suitable 
positions  were  not  available  at  home  for  the  many  young  men  of 
birth  and  wealth  highly  educated  by  the  German  school  system. 
In  other  words,  there  were  so  many  high  officers  in  the  army  and 
navy,  so  many  high  officials  in  the  government,  and  so  many  nobles 
and  wealthy  men  throughout  the  country,  that  suitable  positions 
for  their  sons  could  not  be  obtained  in  the  Fatherland.  Hence 
Germany  needed  a  colonial  empire  which  these  young  men  could 
organize  and  develop.  Germany,  in  short,  needed  colonies  where 
her  ambitious  youths  might  have  an  opportunity  to  exploit  the 
native  inhabitants,  and  thus  to  become  supermen. 

How  officials  in  the  German  colonies  succeeded  in  carrying  out 
this  policy  of  exploitation  a  writer  in  the  Nineteenth  Century  for 
July,  1915,  informs  us.  In  German  Southwest  Africa  the  native 
population  has  decreased  from  nearly  l.OOO.OCX)  to  less  than  100,000 
during  the  thirty  years  which  the  Germans  have  administered  the 
affairs  of  the  colony,  and  in  1913  the  Colonial  Secretary  admitted 
that  105,000  natives  in  Togoland  had  been  killed,  during  the  preced- 

■"«  Thiis  sivo.kfi  ZarathvMra,  p.   60. 
"  lUd.,  p.  305. 


316  Indiana  University  Alumni  Quarterly 

ing  ten  years,  by  German  expeditions  sent  against  them.  The  Ger- 
mans could  not  make  their  colonies  pay.  And  in  order  to  make 
them  pay,  they  wanted  the  natives  to  work  almost  without  pay, 
hence  insurrection  and  war.  This  policy  of  annihilation  which  the 
Germans  introduced  into  their  colonies,  they  are  now  extending 
to  their  recently  conquered  territories.  And  it  has  the  approval, 
not  only  of  Germans  at  home,  but  of  some  Germans  abroad.  A 
writer  in  a  German- American  paper  has  expressed  himself  as  fol- 
lows: 

"When  we  have  humbled  our  enemies  and  confiscated  their 
lands,  let  but  any  one  of  the  former  natives  of  the  soil,  be  he 
English,  French,  Italian,  American,  or  a  man  of  any  other  lower 
race,  lift  up  his  voice  louder  than  a  sigh,  and  we  will  dash  him 
to  pieces  against  the  earth. 

"And  after  we  have  demolished  their  worm-eaten  cathedrals 
and  the  rest  of  their  hideous  structures,  together  with  the  temples 
of  India  and  the  other  countries  of  heathendom,  we  will  build 
much  bigger  cathedrals  and  more  splendid  temples  in  which  to 
honor  our  noble  Kaiser  and  the  great  deeds  of  his  people,  who 
are  the  destroyers  of  the  decadent  races  of  the  world. 

"Oh !  how  we  thank  God  for  having  chosen  our  great  and  in^ 
comparable  Kaiser  and  his  people  to  accomplish  this  mighty  mis- 
sion, for  has  Darwin  not  said  (and  no  doubt  he  borrowed  this  idea 
from  some  of  our  great  German  professors)  that  only  the  fittest  shall 
survive  ?  And  are  the  Germans  not  the  fittest  in  all  things  ?  There- 
fore let  all  us  Germans  say :  Perish  the  carrion !  Only  the  Germans 
are  noble  men."^^ 

Another  conclusion  from  the  German  theory  of  the  highest 
good  is  Pan-Germanism,  that  is,  the  world  for  Germany.  For  if 
the  native  races  of  the  colonies  were  exterminated  what  would  the 
administrators  do?  As  supermen  they  could  not  live  on  one  an- 
other. Then  they  would  need  other  countries  to  govern,  and  other 
peoples  to  consume.  The  following  are  a  few  of  the  many  state- 
ments that  might  be  cited  from  German  Molochs  in  support  of  their 
cherished  Juggernaut: 

Major  General  von  Roehl:  "Only  one  people  has  the  right 
to  play  a  leading  role  in  the  political  world,  and  that  people  is  the 
German  people."^® 

The  Kaiser:     "The  ocean  reminds  us     .     .     .     that  on  it  and 

"Cf.  Le  Bon:     Psychology  of  the  Great  War,  p.  145. 
"White:     A  Text-Book  of  the  War,  p.  39. 


Elkin:  German  Philosophy  of  IV ar  317 

beyond  it  no  great  decision  may  henceforth  be  made  without  Ger- 
many and  the  German  Emperor.''^^ 

Goette:  Expansion  "is  our  law  of  Hfe.  To  live  and  expand 
at  the  expense  of  other  less  meritorious  peoples  finds  its  justifica- 
tion in  the  conviction  that  we  are  of  all  people,  the  most  noble 
and  the  most  pure,  destined  before  others  to  work  for  the  highest 
development  of  humanity."2i 

Vossische  Zeitung:  "As  we  are  the  supreme  people,  our  duty, 
henceforth,  is  to  lead  the  march  of  humanity  itself.  ...  It 
would  be  a  sin  against  our  mission  to  spare  the  people  who  are 
inferior  to  us."^^ 

Rommel :  "The  time  is  at  hand  when  the  five  poor  sons  of  the 
German  family,  allured  by  the  resources  and  the  fertility  of  France, 
will  easily  make  an  end  of  the  solitary  son  of  the  French  family. 

"The  land  between  the  Vosges  and  the  Pyrenees  was  not  made 
by  the  Almighty  just  in  order  that  38,000,000  Frenchmen  should 
vegetate  there  without  growing,  when  100,000,000  Germans  could 
live  and  flourish  there  as  well,  according  to  the  divine  law."^^ 

Treitschke:  "Then  when  the  German  flag  flies  over  and  pro- 
tects this  vast  empire,  to  whom  v/ill  belong  the  sceptre  of  the  uni- 
verse? What  nation  will  impose  its  wishes  on  the  other  enfeebled 
and  decadent  peoples?  Will  it  not  be  Germany  that  will  have  the 
mission  to  ensure  the  peace  of  the  world  ?"2^ 

Evangelical  League:  "The  King  at  the  head  of  Prussia,  Prus- 
sia at  the  head  of  Germany,  Germany  at  the  head  of  the  world. "-^ 

Still  another  conclusion  which  follows  from  the  German  theory 
of  the  highest  good  may  be  mentioned,  viz,  the  German  language 
ought  to  become  the  language  of  the  world.  The  argument  on 
this  subject  is  clear  and  brief :  All  other  European  languages  are 
based  on  the  roots  of  dead  languages.  The  roots  of  dead  languages 
are  dead.  Therefore,  all  languages  based  on  these  roots  are  de- 
cadent.    Q.E.D. 

The  position  of  English  is  peculiarly  unfortunate,  for  English 
is  based  on  the  roots  of  two  dead  languages,  Greek  and  Latin; 
therefore  it  is  doubly  decadent.^^     On  the  other  hand,  the  Ger- 

^  Hammer:     William  the  Second,  p.   128. 

-1  BuUard :     Diplomacy  of  the  Great  War,  p.  30. 

22  Outlook. 

23  The  Real  Kaiser,  p.  140. 

2*  White:      Text-Book  of  the  War,  p.  46. 
2*  Reich  :     Germany's  Swelled  Head,  p.  49. 

2«Cf.  Frantzius:  Book  of  Truth  and  Facts,  p.  35;  Harrison:  Pan-German 
Doctrine,  p.  320. 


318  Indiana  University  Alumni  Quarterly 

man  language  came  straight  from  God,  and  is  thus,  in  every  re- 
spect, pre-eminently  fitted  to  be  divinely  instrumental  in  spreading 
the  culture  of  mankind.  Says  a  prominent  writer  in  the  Deutsche 
TageszeiHmg:  "It  is  a  crying  necessity  that  German  should  replace 
English  as  the  world  language.  Should  the  English  language  be 
victorious  and  become  the  world  language  the  culture  of  mankind 
will  stand  before  a  closed  door,  and  the  death  knell  will  sound  for 
civilization. 

"Here  we  have  the  reason  why  it  is  necessary  for  the  German, 
and  with  him  the  German  language,  to  conquer.  And  the  victory 
once  won,  be  it  now  or  be  it  one  hundred  years  hence,  there  remains 
a  task  for  the  German,  than  which  none  is  more  important,  that 
of  forcing  the  German  tongue  on  the  world.  On  all  men,  .  .  . 
on  men  of  all  colors  and  nationalities,  the  German  language  acts 
as  a  blessing  which,  coming  direct  from  the  hand  of  God  [or  from 
his  mouth?],  sinks  into  the  heart  like  a  precious  balm  and  ennobles 
it. 

"English,  the  bastard  tongue  of  the  canting  island  pirates,  must 
be  swept  from  the  place  it  has  usurped,  and  forced  back  into  the 
remotest  corners  of  Britain,  until  it  has  returned  to  its  original 
elements  of  an  insignificant  pirate  dialect."^^  To  help  accomplish 
this  object  the  German  government  subsidized  the  Alliance  of 
Teachers  of  German  in  the  United  States.^s 

We  come  next  to  the  treatment  of  conscience  or  the  moral 
faculty.  Conscience  was  formerly  defined  as  the  voice  of  God  in 
the  soul  of  man.  That  definition  may  have  done  very  well  in  the 
theological  stage  of  civilization,  but  it  is  not  satisfactory  in  the 
scientific.  Conscience  must  now  be  explained  in  terms  of  antecedent 
and  consequent  like  any  other  natural  phenomenon.  The  usual  ac- 
count of  the  moral  faculty,  in  the  first  three  stages  of  its  develop- 
ment, is  somewhat  as  follows : 

At  first  the  child  has  no  conscience,  just  as  it  has  no  language. 
But  it  has  the  capacity  of  acquiring  both.  As  it  grows  it  gradually 
acquires  a  conscience  and  a  language,  and  it  acquires  the  one  in 
much  the  same  manner  as  the  other.  Brought  up  in  one  country, 
it  acquires  one  language;  brought;  up  in  another  country,  it  ac- 
quires another  language.  Similarly,  the  child  brought  up  in  one 
country  develops  one  kind  of  conscience;  brought  up  in  a  different 
country,  it  develops  a  different  kind  of  conscience.     The  first  form 

"White:     Text-Book  of  the  War,  p.  40. 

»Cf.  Atlantic  Monthly,  December,  1917,  p.  741. 


Elkin:  German  Philosophy  of  War  319 

of  conscience  which  the  child  acquires  may  be  called  the  conscience 
of  the  home,  and  is  derived  largely  from  its  mother.  This  is  con- 
science on  the  first  level,  to  speak  in  the  language  of  psychology. 

But  the  child  goes  to  school,  to  church  and  Sunday  School,  meets 
and  plays  and  works  with  other  children  and  with  other  people. 
Thus  its  conscience  grows,  as  its  language  grows.  And  after  a 
time  the  youth  acquires  the  conscience  of  the  community.  This 
is  conscience  on  the  second  level.  It  is  the  conscience  of  custom. 
Whatever  is  in  accordance  with  custom  is  right,  and  whatever  is 
contrary  to  custom  is  wrong.  This  conscience  can  scarcely  be  re- 
garded as  an  individual  faculty;  rather  it  is  social  faculty,  a  col- 
lective faculty;  the  common  conscience  of  the  people.  And  this 
is  as  far  as  the  development  of  conscience  often  goes. 

For  some  persons,  however,  there  is  a  third  stage  in  the  develop- 
ment of  conscience.  This  is  the  result  of  a  process  called  individual- 
ization. People  who  are  accustomed  to  do  their  own  thinking,  or 
who  read  some  of  the  masterpieces  of  literature,  or  who  study 
science,  philosophy,  ethics,  or  religion  gradually  advance  from  the 
second  level  to  the  third  level,  from  the  collective  conscience  to  the 
individual  conscience.  Then  they  may  criticize  the  customs  of  the 
community,  which  they  formerly  accepted  without  question. 
Some  customs  they  approve,  others  they  disapprove.  Some 
modes  of  conduct  they  commend,  others  they  would  change  or 
abolish.  They  have  acquired  a  higher  conscience  than  that  of 
custom.  This  is  properly  an  individual  conscience,  in  contrast  with 
the  collective.  It  has  been  acquired  through  contact  with  the 
thought  of  other  minds,  and  exists  in  the  higher  ideals  of  one's 
community,  of  one's  country,  or  of  the  race. 

It  should  be  observed  further,  that  in  this  process  of  individual- 
ization there  are  two  paths  or  directions,  either  of  which  conscience 
may  take :  the  upward  path,  and  the  downward  path.  A  person  may 
acquire  a  higher  conscience  than  that  of  custom,  or  a  lower  one. 
Not  only  may  a  person  acquire  a  perverted  conscience,  or  a  seared 
conscience,  but  may  lose  the  conscience  one  formerly  had,  and 
proclaim  complete  emancipation  from  all  moral  restraints  what- 
ever. This  experience  may  be  illustrated  in  the  sphere  of  know- 
ledge. A  thinker  examines  many  different  theories, — scientific, 
philosophical,  or  religious, — and  as  a  result  of  his  examination  he 
may  arrive  at  the  correct  view.  He  has  then  a  higher  idea  of  truth 
than  before.  He  is  in  a  position  to  criticize  other  theories,  and  say 
this  one  is  true,  or  that  one  is  false,  as  the  case  may  be.     But  he 


320  Indiana  University  Alumni  Quarterly 

may  also  arrive  at  a  degree  of  bewilderment,  or  dissatisfaction, 
such  that  he  may  say  this  theory  is  false,  and  that  theory  is  false — 
they  all  are  false;  truth  is  not  to  be  discovered  anywhere;  there 
is  no  such  thing  as  truth.  The  case  is  precisely  similar  in  the 
sphere  of  ethics,  during  the  process  of  individualization.  Some 
persons  rise  to  a  higher  level  of  conscience,  others  sink  to  a  lower. 
Of  the  two  paths  in  the  moral  life,  one  leads  up  the  front  stairs 
to  the  treasure-house  of  virtue;  the  other  leads  down  the  back 
stairs  to  the  charnel  house  of  vice. 

There  is  a  fourth  stage  in  the  development  of  conscience,  that 
which  implies  the  existence  of  a  transcendental  factor;  but  it  does 
not  call  for  treatment  here,  as  very  few  Germans  now  advance  to 
this  stage. 

Naturally  the  next  question  is.  To  what  stage  of  development 
does  the  German  conscience  attain  ?  The  conscience  of  the  common 
people  is  on  the  second  level.  The  common  people  have  a  collective 
conscience,  that  of  custom.  The  ruling  classes,  on  the  other  hand, 
have  advanced  to  the  third  level.  But  in  the  process  of  individuali- 
zation most  members  of  the  ruling  classes  seem  to  have  gone  on 
the  downward  path,  instead  of  on  the  upward,  and  have  acquired  a 
perverted  conscience,  or  a  seared  conscience,  or  have  lost  their  con- 
science altogether.  This  seems  to  be  particularly  true  of  the  officers 
of  the  army  and  navy,  of  the  members  of  the  diplomatic  corps,  and 
of  government  officials  generally. 

Thus  much  as  to  the  theoretical  treatment  of  the  German  con- 
science. It  only  remains  now  to  show  how  the  peculiar  brand  of 
conscience,  universally  known  as  "Teutonic",  has  been  developed  in 
the  German  people  through  the  influence  of  their  chief  institutions 
as  directed  and  controlled  by  the  Kaiser  and  his  government. 

Many  years  ago  when  the  writer  was  in  Germany,  he  was 
interested  in  education,  and  visited  Jena  University,  then  the  Mecca 
of  American  educators.  In  conversation  with  an  American  fellow- 
student  one  day,  I  asked  him  what  he  thought  of  the  German 
schools.  He  replied:  "Not  very  much.  They  scarcely  teach  any- 
thing but  God  and  the  Kaiser."  He  ought  to  have  said  "the  Kaiser 
and  God,"  for  that  is  the  way  in  which  instruction  in  a  German 
elementary  school  impresses  an  American.  One  fine  morning  a 
normal  school  man  from  West  Virginia  proposed  to  me  that  we 
take  a  day  ofif,  and  visit  a  village  school.  And  we  did.  We  went 
out  some  twenty  miles  on  the  train,  reached  our  destined  village, 
and  obtained  admittance  to  the  school.     German  village  schools 


Elkin:  German  Philosophy  of  War  321 

are  much  alike.  I  had  already  visited  several,  but  my  friend  saw 
this   world-renowned   phenomenon   then    for   the   first   time. 

In  this  school  there  were  some  seventy  or  eighty  pupils.  There 
were  two  teachers,  an  old  man  and  a  young  man,  but  only  one 
schoolroom.  In  the  afternoon  the  old  man  took  charge,  with  all 
the  children  in  one  class.  He  taught  a  great  lesson  in  history,  on 
the  German  Kaisers.  Long,  lank,  and  earnest  he  stood  before 
the  class,  and  delivered  his  message  with  animation  and  with  power. 
In  all  seriousness  and  with  glowing  fervor,  he  told  the  pupils  what 
grand  and  glorious  deeds  the  wonderful  and  incomparable  Kaisers 
had  done  for  the  German  people  and  their  beloved  Fatherland, 
God  did  not  have  even  second  place;  the  Kaisers  were  the  whole 
thing.  The  schoolroom  was  decorated  with  many  pictures  of  the 
Emperor  and  other  Hohenzollerns,  as  indeed  are  the  walls  of  all 
German  schools.  The  teacher  may  have  taught  many  other  sub- 
jects that  afternoon.  I  remember  only  the  history  lesson.  It  is  as 
vivid  now,  after  a  lapse  of  twenty  years,  as  is  any  experience  of 
yesterday.  And  I  believe  the  impression  made  on  the  children  was 
no  less  strong  than  that  on  me.  In  this  manner  the  German  school 
develops  what  may  well  be  called  a  "Kaiser"  conscience. 

Dr.  Busch,  in  his  secret  Life  of  Bismarck,  has  told  us  how  the 
German  government  controls  and  directs  the  press.  Busch  was 
Bismarck's  right-hand  man  in  this  field  for  three  years.  And  Bis- 
marck kept  him  busy,  Sunday  and  Monday,  sometimes  day  and 
night,  sending  at  any  hour  a  messenger  to  call  him,  if  a  press  com- 
munication demanded  despatch.  "I  sometimes  saw  him,"  says 
Busch,  "as  often  as  five  or  even  eight  times  in  one  day.  At 
their  first  interview  Bismarck  said:  "I  intend  to  get  you  to  write 
notes  and  articles  for  the  papers  from  such  particulars  and  instruc- 
tions as  I  may  give  you.  .  .  .  You  will  also  arrange  for  others 
doing  so." 

"At  these  interviews,"  wrote  Busch,  "I  had  to  take  good  care 
to  keep  my  ears  well  open,  and  to  note  everything  with  the  closest 
attention.  .  .  .  Through  practice,  I  gradually  succeeded  in 
retaining  long  sentences  and  even  whole  speeches,  practically  with- 
out omissions,  until  I  had  an  opportunity  of  committing  them  to 
paper."  Busch  gives  a  list  of  newspapers  to  which  "articles  thus 
prepared  were  supplied,"  and  mentioned  several  writers  to  whom 
he  himself  gave  "instructions  and  material  for  publication,"  among 
them  "Herr  Heide,  who  had  previously  been  a  missionary  in  Aus- 
tralia and  was  at  that  time  working  for  the  North  German  Corre- 


322  Indiana  University  Alumni  Quarterly 

spondence,  which  had  been  founded  with  a  view  to  influencing  the 
English  press." 

As  an  illustration  of  the  character  of  Bismarck's  instructions 
we  may  take  a  brief  item  of  March  11,  1870:  "Attention  is  to  be 
directed,  at  first  in  a  paper  which  has  no  connection  with  the  Gov- 
ernment, to  the  prolonged  sojourn  of  Archduke  Albrecht  in  Paris 
as  a  suspicious  symptom.  In  connection  with  it  rumors  have  been 
circulated  in  London  of  an  understanding  between  France  nad  Aus- 
tria.   Our  papers  will  afterwards  reproduce  these  hints." 

Busch's  duties  "also  included  the  reading  of  piles  of  German, 
Austrian,  and  French  newspapers,"  which  were  laid  upon  his  desk 
"three  times  daily."2» 

In  this  way  Bismarck  and  Busch  helped  to  develop  in  the  Ger- 
man people  a  "Kaiser"  conscience.  And  their  policy  still  continues. 
On  July  27,  1914,  Austria  was  "wild  with  joy  at  the  prospect  of 
war  with  Serbia".""*  A  few  days  later  Germany  was  wild  with  joy 
at  the  prospect  of  war  with  Russia.  The  German  press  had  made 
thorough  and  effective  preparation  for  the  Great  War,  as  later  it 
made  thorough  and  eflFective  preparation  for  the  destruction  of 
merchant  ships  by  submarines.  The  result  for  the  government  in 
both  cases  was  similar.  To  the  editor  of  the  New  York  Nation, 
Darmstaedter  of  Gottingen  University  wrote:  "I  find  the  sinking 
of  the  Lusitania  was  just,  necessary,  and  useful,  and  I  may  add 
that  the  whole  German  nation  has  the  same  opinion."-*^ 

The  Church  also  helps  to  develop  a  "Kaiser"  conscience.  Every 
clergyman  when  taking  his  oath  of  office  swears:  "I  will  be  sub- 
missive, faithful,  and  obedient  to  his  Royal  Majesty.  ...  In 
particular,  I  vow  that  I  will  not  support  any  society  or  association, 
.  .  .  which  might  endanger  the  public  security,  I  will  in- 
form his  Majesty  of  any  proposals  made,  either  in  my  diocese, 
or  elsewhere,  which  might  prove  injurious  to  the  state.  I  will 
preach  the  word  as  his  Gracious  Majesty  dictates. "^2 

It  is  not  surprising  that  an  observant  publicist  like  Rohrbach 
bewailed  the  slight  influence  of  religion  on  the  German  conscience. 
Writing  a  few  years  before  the  war  he  acknowledged  that  the  prob- 
lem of  religion  was  one  of  the  most  difficult  that  the  German  people 
had  to  face.  "Are  the  churches,"  he  asked,  "capable  of  dealing  with 
the  demoralization  of  our  national  conscience  owing  to  the  idolatry 

*•  Busch  :     Bismarck  :    Some  Secret  Pages,  chap.  1. 

'o  British  White  Paper,  No.  41. 

'^Nation,  July  8,  1915. 

"Atlantic  Monthly,  January,  1918,  p.  20. 


Elkin:  German  Philosophy  of  War  323 

of  class  distinctions,  by  awakening  a  strong  Christian  religious 
consciousness  ?"  He  admitted  that  the  outlook  was  not  encouraging, 
because  the  Lutheran  church,  as  he  asserted,  "appears  from  the  first 
to  be  the  church  of  princes  and  classes,  and  has  remained  so  faith- 
ful to  itself  that  the  principle  of  worldly  authority  and  class  supe- 
riority has  been  better  developed  within  its  walls  than  anywhere 
else."^^ 

The  theater,  similarly,  is  an  important  factor  in  molding  the 
German  conscience.  "When  I  succeeded  to  the  throne,"  said  the 
Kaiser,  "I  was  convinced  and  had  firmly  determined  that  the  Royal 
Theater,  like  the  schools  and  the  universities,  must  be  an  instru- 
ment of  the  monarch,  .  .  .  The  theater  is  also  one  of  my 
weapons."^^ 

The  university  is  one  of  the  most  effective  weapons  of  the  Kaiser 
in  the  development  of  the  German  conscience.  The  University  is 
a  state  institution.  The  government  controls  and  may  prescribe 
the  subjects  of  instruction.  The  present  Emperor,  soon  after  his 
accession,  ordered  the  Minister  of  Education  "to  discourage  as  far 
as  possible  the  study  of  the  French  Revolution  in  German  schools 
and  universities".  Later  he  changed  his  mind  and  recommended 
it,  with  the  direction  that  "we  should  learn  from  it  to  know  the 
powers  of  darkness  and  of  destruction  and  attach  ourselves  by  so 
much  the  more  closely  to  monarchy  and  authority."^*^ 

The  government  appoints  the  professors,  promotes  those  who 
please  it,  and  dismisses  or  disciplines  those  who  do  not.  Dr.  Arons, 
a  teacher  of  physics  in  the  University  of  Berlin,  was  dismissed,  not 
because  of  his  teaching,  but  because  he  was  a  Social  Democrat.-''^ 
Huefifer  relates  "the  case  of  the  brothers  X," — a  burgomaster,  a 
professor,  and  an  assistant  professor.  The  burgomaster  wrote  for 
a  Liberal  paper  an  article  which  displeased  the  government.  He 
was  tried  in  camera  for  this  offense  and  deprived  of  his  office. 
Then  the  Minister  of  Education  presented  to  the  other  two  brothers 
for  signature  a  paper  disavowing  the  liberal  opinions  of  the  burgo- 
master. They  refused  to  sign.  The  assistant  professor  was  not 
only  dismissed,  but  the  Prussian  government  endeavored  to  prevent 
his  appointment  at  any  other  university  in  Germany.  And  the  pro- 
fessor was  boycotted  in  the  following  manner :  He  was  deprived  of 
his  seat  in  the  university  senate;  he  was  prohibited  from  examin- 

M  German  World  Policies,  p.   130. 

3*  The  Real  Kaiser,  p.  98. 

''HuefEer:      When  Blood  Was  Their  Argument,  p.  212,  n. 

'"Paulsen:     German  Universities,  p.  251. 


324  Indiana  University  Alumni  Quarterly 

ing  students;  the  students  were  warned  that  if  they  attended  his 
lectures  their  subsequent  careers  would  be  prejudiced;  and  another 
professor  was  appointed  to  offer  his  courses.  And  yet,  so  peculiar 
is  the  German  mental  constitution,  that  soon  after  the  outbreak 
of  the  present  war  one  of  these  professors  wrote  HuefTer  making 
a  spirited  defense  of  Germany,  "as  the  true  land  of  culture  and  of 
democratic  progress".''^ 

Of  course  it  will  be  asserted  that  all  the  factors  named  thus 
far  are  not  sufficient  to  explain  the  real  character  of  the  German 
conscience,  as  it  has  been  revealed  in  this  world  war.  They  ex- 
plain it  in  part.  But  they  do  not  explain  the  fiendish  cruelty  of 
German  soldiers  as  manifested  in  the  most  horrible  atrocities  com- 
mitted on  a  stupendous  scale.  And  they  do  not  explain  the  gen- 
eral acquiescence  of  the  German  people  in  the  wholesale  massacres 
of  noncombatants,  and  in  the  incredibly  inhuman  methods  of  war- 
fare carried  on  in  Belgium,  in  Poland,  in  Armenia,  and  on  the  high 
seas.  Two  additional  considerations,  however,  will  serve  to  indicate 
how  the  German  conscience  has  been  molded  along  these  lines. 

First,  as  to  the  soldiers.  Most  Americans  have  no  idea  of  the 
methods  of  training  and  discipline  which  prevail  in  the  German 
army.  If  American  officers  treated  their  men  as  German  officers 
treat  theirs,  the  American  army  would  soon  be  without  officers. 
For  instance,  a  German  officer  is  putting  his  men  through  some 
exercises.  The  men,  perhaps  raw  recruits,  do  not  always  remem- 
ber their  instructions  or  do  not  respond  promptly.  A  man,  let  us 
say,  does  not  hold  his  head  high  enough.  The  officer  shuts  his 
fist  and  gives  him  a  blow  under  the  chin,  knocks  up  his  head,  and 
tells  him  to  hold  it  that  way.  This  is  only  a  trifling  occurrence. 
The  officers  use  their  feet  as  well  as  their  fists,  and  sometimes  their 
swords  too.  Huessner,  a  German  ensign,  "killed  his  life-long  friend, 
Hartmann,  a  private  of  artillery,  for  failure  to  salute  him  prop- 
erly".37» 

Immediately  before  the  war,  during  the  prosecution  of  Rosa 
Luxemburg  for  asserting  that  cruelties  committed  by  officers  were 
an  everyday  occurrence  in  the  barracks,  the  Social  Democrats  se- 
cured "thirty-two  thousand  certified  cases  of  recent  acts  of  cruel- 
ty".^® German  soldiers  are  brutalized  in  a  manner  wholly  unknown 
to  soldiers  serving  under  a  democratic  regime.  They  tend  to  lose 
all   the  little   element   of  conscience   that   they   ever  had,   except 

»T  When  Blood  Was  Their  Argument,  pp.  220-1. 

"aCf.  Nation,  June  4,  1903,  p.  447;  June  8,  1915,  p.  71. 

» Walling  in  Outlook,  November  25.  1914,  p.  675. 


Elkin:  German  Philosophy  of  War  325 

obedience  to  their  officers.  And  their  officers,  as  already  stated, 
usually  have  little  or  no  conscience  or  else  a  perverted  one.  When 
passing  from  the  second  level  of  conscience  to  the  third,  they  go 
down  the  back  stairs  instead  of  up  the  front.  It  would  be  easy 
to  show  how  this  process  of  moral  degeneration  takes  place  if  space 
permitted.^^ 

Enough,  perhaps,  has  now  been  said  to  indicate  how  the  Ger- 
man army  became  an  immense  breeding-place  for  unnatural,  as 
well  as  natural,  vices.  Hence  the  abominable  and  diabolical  acts  of 
barbarity  and  bestiality,  countless  and  inexcusable,  committed  in 
France  and  Belgium,  by  privates  and  officers  alike,  against  innocent 
and  defenseless  women  and  children,  acts  that  are  now  heralded 
throughout  the  world,  and  the  record  of  which  will  ever  remain  to 
the  everlasting  shame  of  the  German  aristocracy  and  of  the  Ger- 
man army.  As  Morgan  says,  to  the  end  of  time  they  will  be  re- 
membered, "and  from  one  generation  to  another,  on  the  plains  of 
Flanders,  in  the  valleys  of  the  Vosges,  and  on  the  rolling  fields  of 
the  Marne,  oral  tradition  will  perpetuate  this  story  of  infamy  and 
wrong".'*o 

Secondly,  the  people.  It  is  necessary  to  bear  in  mind  that  at  the 
beginning  of  the  war,  and  during  the  first  few  weeks  of  the  conflict, 
the  German  people  passed  through  an  experience  such  as  no  peo- 
ple ever  passed  through  before,  on  such  an  extensive  scale.  Their 
press,  their  preachers,  teachers,  and  leaders  made  them  believe  that 
they  were  attacked  by  their  enemies  who  wished  to  destroy  them.  The 
common  people  were  made  to  believe  that  they  would  easily  and 
quickly  vanquish  all  their  enemies,  and,  further,  they  were  led  to  be- 
lieve that  the  war  would  result  in  great  material  and  spiritual  advan- 
tages to  themselves.  The  events  of  the  first  month  seemed  to  confirm 
all  their  expectations.  They  read  of  nothing  but  victories,  day  after 
day,  on  all  the  battle  fronts.  In  a  few  weeks  they  would  be  in 
Paris,  in  a  few  months  in  London,  and  then  the  whole  world  would 
lie  at  their  feet.  For  the  first  time  in  their  history  the  entire  popu- 
lation became  supermen.  Nietzsche's  doctrine  reached  its  culmina* 
tion.  The  following  quotation  from  the  press  campaign  of  that 
time  may  serve  to  portray  the  national  feeling: 

"There  are  two  kinds  of  races,  master  races  and  inferior  races. 
Political  rights  belong  to  the  master  race  alone,  and  can  only 
be  won  by  war.     This  is  a  scientific  law,  a  law  of  biology.     It  is 

» Cf .  Harrison :  The  Kaiser's  War,  chap,  iv,  Intelligent  Brutality ;  also 
German  War  Manual. 

*"  German  Atrocities,  p.  90. 


326  Indiana  University  Alumni  Quarterly 

unjust  that  a  rapidly-increasing  master  race  should  be  struggling 
for  room  behind  its  own  frontier,  while  a  declining,  inferior  race 
can  stretch  its  limbs  at  ease  on  the  other  side  of  that  frontier.  Tlie 
inferior  race  will  not  be  educated  in  the  schools  of  the  master  race, 
nor  will  any  school  be  established  for  it,  nor  will  its  language  be 
employed  in  public.  Should  it  rebel,  it  is  necessary  to  use  the  most 
violent  means  to  crush  such  insurrection,  and  not  to  encumber  the 
prisons  afterwards.  Thus  the  conquerors  can  best  work  for  the 
annihiliation  of  the  conquered,  and  break  forever  with  the  prejudice 
which  would  claim  for  a  beaten  race  any  right  to  maintain  its  na- 
tionality or  its  native  tongue."^^ 

Ill 

We  come  now  to  an  examination  of  a  few  fundamental  prin- 
ciples of  German  philosophy  of  war. 

Plato's  principle  of  aristocracy,  government  by  the  best  is  the 
best  government,  is  a  sophism.  The  practical  justification  of  democ- 
racy, in  a  few  propositions, — as  there  is  not  space  for  discussion, — 
is  as  follows : 

In  general,  people  attend  to  their  own  business  better  than  other 
people  would  attend  to  it  for  them. 

In  general,  people  govern  themselves  better  than  another  people 
would  govern  them. 

All  the  people  are  more  likely  to  govern  themselves  better  than 
any  one  party,  class,  or  sect  would  govern  them,  for  this  reason: 
Government  is  an  exceedingly  difficult  and  complicated  matter, 
and  mistakes  are  continually  occurring.  But  when  all  the  people 
have  a  voice  in  the  government,  if  a  mistake  is  made,  those  on 
whom  the  evil  of  the  mistake  falls  are  in  a  position  to  help  correct 
the  mistake,  and  thus  remove  the  evil ;  and  they  have  a  tendency 
so  to  do.  That  is,  in  a  democracy  the  corrective  force  lies  within 
the  government.  Hence  the  natural  tendency  of  democracy  is 
progress  and  improvement. 

In  an  aristocracy,  on  the  other  hand,  when  a  mistake  is  made  the 
resulting  evil  usually  falls  on  those  without  the  government.  And 
these  persons  have  little  or  no  power  to  remove  the  evil  by  cor- 
recting the  mistake.  Hence  the  natural  tendency  of  an  aristocracy, 
no  matter  how  good  the  government  was  originally,  is  to  grow  grad- 

*i  Pan-Germanische  Blatter,  September,  1914;  cf.  North  American  Review, 
January,  1915,  p.  43  ;  Atlantic  Monthly,  January  1918,  p.  17. 


Elkin:  German  Philosophy  of  War  2>27 

ually  worse.  After  education  becomes  universal,  aristocracy  is  an 
anachronism. 

The  Hebrew  idea  of  a  single  chosen  people  is  one-sided.  Later 
writers  in  the  Old  Testament  arrived  at  a  truer  and  juster  con- 
ception. Thus  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah  regarded  God  as  the  God  of  all 
peoples  of  the  Egyptians  and  Babylonians,  as  well  as  of  the  He- 
brews. Of  course  it  is  eminently  becoming  for  everyone  to  think 
that  one's  own  country  is  the  best,  just  as  it  is  meet  and  right  for 
every  man  who  is  married  to  think  that  his  wife  is  the  best  woman 
in  the  world.  But  such  thought  seems  to  be  a  process  of  the  idealiz- 
ing imagination,  rather  than  a  judgment  of  the  understanding. 

Machiavelli  was  a  keen  observer,  and  a  versatile  writer;  but  he 
was  not  a  profound  thinker.  He  failed  to  perceive  that  the  moral 
order  lies  at  the  basis,  as  the  very  essence  of  human  affairs.  As 
Morley  said,  in  his  Romanes  lecture:  "The  modern  conception  of 
a  state  has  long  made  it  a  moral  person,  capable  of  right  and  wrong, 
just  as  are  the  individuals  composing  it."'*^ 

Comte's  law  of  the  three  stages  is  a  superficial  generalization, 
and  is  consequently  inaccurate.  He  did  not  distinguish  between 
the  terms  "theology"  and  "mythology".  If  he  had  said  that  civiliza- 
tion passes  through  two  stages,  the  mythological  and  the  scientific, 
he  would  have  been  correct ;  or  he  might  have  said  that  it  passes 
through  three  stages,  the  mythological,  the  transitional,  and  the 
scientific.  For  this  is  the  order  in  which  civilization  always  has  ad- 
vanced. As  theology  and  metaphysics  arose  out  of  mythology, 
likewise  did  ancient  science.  Mythology  was  the  great  mother  sci- 
ence. And  as  the  special  sciences  gradually  freed  themselves  from 
mythology  and  became  more  strictly  scientific,  so  did  theology  and 
metaphysics  also.  Hence,  instead  of  Comte's  statement  being  true, 
that  theology  and  metaphysics  have  become  outgrown  and  useless, 
precisely  the  contrary  is  the  case.  With  the  methodical  and  logical 
advance  of  the  special  sciences,  theology  and  metaphysics  have 
advanced  in  like  manner.  Theology,  metaphysics,  and  science  have 
all  advanced  in  concert,  or  in  close  relation  to  one  another,  some- 
times one,  sometimes  another  being  in  the  lead.  And  there  is  not 
any  rational  ground  for  inferring  that  the  course  of  civilization,  in 
this  respect,  will  be  different  in  the  future  from  that  in  the  past. 
As  long  as  human  nature  endures,  theology,  metaphysics,  and  sci- 
ence will  stand  or  fall  together. 

Regarding  lonely   and   unhappy   Nietzsche   two  brief   remarks 

«P.  45. 


328  Indiana  University  Alumni  Quarterly 

must  here  suffice:  (1)  Nietzsche  was  a  specialist.  He  may  have 
been  a  great  scholar  in  philology, — though  even  in  this  field  his 
unfortunate  prejudices  sometimes  lured  him  aside  from  the  straight 
and  narrow  path  of  scientific  procedure.  But  he  wrote  on  anthro- 
pology, psychology,  sociology,  philosophy,  ethics,  and  religion,  sub- 
jects about  which  he  knew  comparatively  little.  Hence  his  relig- 
ious and  philosophical  opinions  are  largely  of  the  nature  of  personal 
guesses,  not  logical  or  valid  conclusions.  Frau  Wagner's  criticism 
on  Human,  Ail-too  Human  applies  to  many  of  his  books ;  superficial 
in  matter  and  pretentious  in  manner.  And  although  the  preten- 
tiousness increased  until  he  boasted  that  he  had  attained  to  "an 
elevation"  where  he  spoke  "no  longer  with  words,  but  with  flashes 
of  lightning,"  the  superficiality  alas!  remained.  (2)  The  last 
eleven  years  of  his  life  Nietzsche  was  hopelessly  insane;  and  for  the 
ten  years  preceding  this  period  he  was  a  confirmed  invalid,  suffer- 
ing part  of  the  time,  if  not  all,  from  a  lesion  of  the  brain.  Conse- 
quently his  writings,  particularly  the  later  ones,  are  not  to  be  taken 
as  the  expression  of  a  normal  or  rational  mind.  They  are  of  prac- 
tically no  value,  except  from  the  subjective  point  of  view.  They 
are  of  interest  to  the  psychologist,  or  to  the  pathologist  as  they 
serve  to  throw  light  on  the  gradual  progress  of  nervous  disease  in 
this  remarkable,  but  erratfc  and  unbalanced  man. 

For  nearly  a  generation  Germany  has  been  intoxicated  with 
Kaiserism  and  Nietzscheism.  Recently  the  Deutsche  Zeitung  pro- 
claimed :  "Down  with  the  world-conscience !  Away  with  the  spirit 
of  world-brotherhood!  Let  the  German  spirit  of  power  alone  be 
our  commander  and  leader !  Its  cry  is  more  power !  More  German 
power!  That  is  the  legacy  bequeathed  to  us  by  our  dead  heroes, 
and  written  in  the  flame-red  letters  of  their  blood.  May  those 
who  trifle  with  this  legacy  be  struck  by  the  curse  which  will  rise 
from  their  graves  to  God's  heaven !  He  whose  'world-conscience' 
or  sense  of  'responsibility  toward  humanity'  causes  him  to  say  or 
write  anything  less  than  that  which  the  power  of  the  German 
sword  commands  is,  and  always  will  be,  a  feeble  political  dreamer, 
a  gloomy  wanderer  in  the  clouds".'*^  The  social  tissue  of  the  Ger- 
man nation  has  become  diseased.  The  public  mind  is  delirious. 
National  responsibility  is  paralyzed.  A  surgical  operation  is  re- 
quired. After  the  diseased  portions  of  the  body  politic  shall  have 
been  removed,  the  nation  will  doubtless  return  to  its  right  mind, 
and  recognize  that  world-empire,  at  the  present  stage  of  political 
evolution,  is  but  an  atavistic  phantom  of  a  deranged  imagination. 

*»  Literary  Digest,  March  2,  1918,  p.  22. 


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